File Format, Compression Techniques, Image Resolution and Colour Depth (M3)

I am now going to describe JPEG files and zip files

JPEG (Joint Pictures Expert Group) is a file format that is used to compress photographic images. JPEG is one of the most popular image format used by digital cameras and such. And is also popular with storing and transmitting images on the internet.

Zip files are single files it is most commonly used on windows operating systems. Zipping is the act of packaging a set of files into a single file or archive that is called a zip file. Usually, the files in a zip file are compressed so that they take up less space in storage or takes less time to send to someone. There are different tools used for zipping files for different operating systems for windows there are WinZip and Netzip, MacZip for Macintosh users and Zip and UnZip for UNIX systems. Have you have received a zip file, you may have to extract and decompress the file by using the same kind of tool that was used to zip the original file.

Image resolution
Image resolution describes the detail an image holds. The higher the resolution, the higher the detail in the image. Resolution determines how close lines can be to each other and still be visually resolved. Images are made up of lots of different colour pixels and if you zoom in to the picture you begin to see the pixels that are making up the picture. If you colour in individual pixels to make the quality better. Making the images bigger or smaller can also affect the quality of an image and this is the problem with manipulation of images.

I am now going to demonstrate the impact of zooming in on a image can have to the quality and file size of the image.

The file size of this image is 41.5 KB (42,553 bytes)

And the file size of this is 122 KB (125,201 bytes)

As you can see the further I zoom in on the image the worse the quality becomes and the file size becomes larger.

Colour depth
The number of possible colours in a graphic image, stored as a given number of bits per pixel. A colour depth of 8 bits provides 256 colours; 16 bits (also known as "High Colour") provides about 65,000 colours; 24 bits (also known as "True Colour") provides about 16,000,000 colours. The higher the colour depth gives a broader range of distinct colours.

Legal Implications of graphics design P6
Graphics design can be quite a delicate matter when it comes to the law. There are various laws restricting what can and can not be done with other graphics that are on the internet but the laws can change from country to country. So it can be hard to understand and there are ways that people can steal other peoples work without breaking the law.

Copyright means the right to copy. So if somebody produces say a logo it is assumed that it is his/her own work in other words the person has the copyright to create the logo. So anyone else who would wish to use the logo would have to ask the person who created it or seek legal action. Action is manly only taken when there is money being made from someone else’s work. To gain permission to use some else’s work you would have to ask the person who created it. And the person would properly want a pay off for the use of there work this can range from hundreds to millions of pounds.

There are some designs that are copyright free this is basically when the user allows there work to be used freely to anyone. For example user made fonts. The creator will usually have some sort of text near or around the work to identify who the actual owner is. If they are not labelled this could mean they are copyright free or belong to the company or website.